Take the Clean Water Challenge!

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Clean water is one of those things that we take for granted. You walk into your house and know that you can turn on the tap in your kitchen or one of your bathrooms and clean, potable (drinkable) water will flow out endlessly. In our house we have 7 sinks, 3 showers and 4 bath tub that all flow clean water as long as you care to leave the taps on. It is easy to forget that this luxury isn’t something that all people enjoy.

We were challenged by World Vision Canada to take the Clean Water Challenge. We will be using only one tap in our house for a day. All washing, teeth brushing, cooking, everything using the water from only the tap in our kitchen. It’s still a bit easier than many people have it around the world because our kitchen tap has unlimited water and it runs hot and cold. It will still be a bit of a change for us. (Oh, and before you ask….we will be using toilets as normal. World Vision wants this to be a challenge, not a gross out.)

First up on the challenging front…. bathing. Every morning I have a hot (Dewey says too hot) shower. It is the only way I seem to be able to shake off sleep and greet the day. This morning, no shower for me. I went downstairs and filled up a big bowl with hot water for my “shower”. Since I didn’t want to wash in the kitchen, I carried it upstairs to our bathroom. The first thing I noticed is that determining what to wash first is a big deal. LOL. Face first! Thankfully I didn’t need to wash my hair. Here are a few other things I realized:

We are lucky to have a nice warm house. Even with it being warm, I got quite cold while bathing. My nice hot shower keeps me warm and helps me get clean. Today’s bowl of water helped with the clean part but not so much the warm part.

I used so much less water but felt just as clean. Soap gets you clean even if you aren’t drenching yourself with water from the shower head. I kind of regret I never tried this camping!

I got ready much faster. Being cold meant that I didn’t dilly dally like I do when I’m in the nice hot shower.

Next up….brushing teeth. Evan and I grabbed our tooth brushes and headed to the kitchen. He was unimpressed that he had to change his routine. He swore it wasn’t warranted. Yep, in our “why we can’t have nice things” part of the story, Evan and I had an interesting conversation:

We also washed all our dishes by hand in the sink using as little water as possible. I will admit that I put off laundry for the day. I just couldn’t wrap my head around how to get it done. Even what little we did experience using only one tap was eye opening.

So why did World Vision challenge me to do this and why did I accept? Well you may not realize but:

Clean Water gifts can be as little as $25 a month and make a dramatic impact.

Every minute a child under the age of five dies from diarrhea caused by contaminated water.

Children lead healthier lives and child death rates dramatically decrease due to a decline in diseases caused by unclean water, poor sanitation and lack of hygiene

About Merry Kuchle

I like to share my passions, and create content that makes a difference to people, whether that means well-loved recipes, helpful travel advice, or personal stories about my life, family, and mental health story. Does your brand fit well with this vision? Email me at yycmerry@gmail.com and we can get planning!

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About Merry Kuchle

Chase Happy with MerryAboutTownI am a mom and stepmom to 3 wonderful kids, a social media geek, an aspiring writer and a pretty okay cook living in Alberta, Canada!
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